Chasing Dreams
by Pureauthor
Summary: On that fateful day in the tower, Rapunzel does not discover she is the Lost Princess. Instead, she sets out alongside Eugene to discover the world, seek adventure, and to chase her dreams that lie just beyond the horizon. A Tangled 'what-if' story.
1. Grey Skies: Part 1

Chasing Dreams

* * *

So, my love for Tangled was resurrected in a big way recently, in no small part thanks to the cartoon series coming out. And then I started turning over plot threads in my mind.

Then I realized I had way too many plot threads and tried to focus on paring them down into something manageable.

As stated in the summary, this fic follows the 'what if?' premise that Rapunzel doesn't come to the realization that she's Corona's lost princess. So instead of deciding to return to the castle... well. There're so many places to go, so many things to do...

Let us begin.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

 **Grey Skies: Part 1**

Summary: It was only then that the truth of the situation fell upon Rapunzel. She was alone. She had nothing. She had no one. Except him.

* * *

"There! Like it never happened." Rapunzel felt her mother's fingers pull out the last of the flowers that had helped to hold her braid in place. With nothing to support or catch it, her hair fell about her in long waves of gold. She didn't bother to look as the flower was tossed carelessly into the basket like all the others.

Somehow, Rapunzel couldn't find the strength to bother about very much of anything.

She heard her mother's voice, vague and indistinct as if coming from somewhere very far away, telling her to wash up and get ready for dinner.

Hah. Dinner. Had it really been that long since she'd come back to the tower? She couldn't tell. Everything around her had been a hazy blur. She was vaguely aware that she was clutching something tightly balled up in her hands.

It was the flag. That Eugene had bought for her.

His first gift to her.

All of a sudden a jumble of conflicting feelings welled up in her. She wanted to open it and press the cloth to her face, as if by doing so she could go back and relive those happy memories for just one more second before it had all come crashing down. She wanted to tear it in half like a flimsy paper, as if by doing so she could banish those memories that now hurt so much and dug into her heart like pointed stones.

Instead she opened her hands and let it drop, still crumpled, to the floor like a dirty rag.

She didn't know how long she sat there, simply staring at the far end of her bedroom. From her side she heard a small whirring and clicking noise as Pascal tried to offer what comfort he could, but even then she couldn't find it in her muster a smile to let him know that she appreciated what he was trying to do. She just stared and felt that dull ache that spread through every corner of her body.

Eventually, she heard her mother calling her down for dinner.

She didn't want to deal with mother, now of all times. But she knew from unpleasant experience that trying to shut her out would just make things turn out even worse for everyone involved, and so she stood.

Slowly, with hesitant steps, she made her way down the staircase, catching sight of the table and two bowls of soup now standing on it.

"Oh, just look at you!" mother's exasperated voice. "Didn't I already tell you to wash up? Honestly, Rapunzel, this is exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. You're always lost in your own little world and never getting anything done. That's why you ended up inventing imaginary romances and filling your head with all sorts of meaningless dreams."

She knew those jabs. She'd heard them all a thousand and one times before, and she'd shrugged them off a thousand and one times too. It was just her mother's way of looking out for her daughter.

But today... today she seemed unable to shake them off, unable to give a polite smile and move on. Each word seemed to pierce deep into her, settling deep into the pit of her stomach, dragging and weighing her down.

And so she simply stood there, feeling like taking a single step forward would already be too huge an effort to make.

Mother must have noticed this, because something softer entered her body language and she let out an indulgent sigh.

"Well, don't worry too much about it, flower. What's done is done, and I'm still here. I'll always be here, you don't need to worry about that. Come on, eat your dinner before it gets cold."

With a nod, Rapunzel shuffled to the table and settled herself down on the chair while her mother turned back to the kitchen area, apparently focusing on something else. Silently, she forced herself to dip the spoon into the broth and bring it up to her mouth. She ate mechanically, barely tasting any of the food.

And then she heard it. Coming from far below, from the base of the tower.

A voice she had thought she would never hear again. A voice that made her both ecstatic and terrified.

Eugene's voice.

"RAPUNZEL!"

(X)

Eugene's thoughts had been in an uproar ever since he had been sprung from prison.

He had passed from despair at the thought that he would die without ever seeing _her_ again to a sort of amazed bafflement at the sudden appearance of the Snuggly Duckling thugs apparently invading Corona's dungeons in order to save _him_ , to relief and gratitude at the sudden appearance of Maximus and the realization that the horse had been the one to plan this whole escape.

He was still a bad horse by Eugene's reckoning, but maybe not _all_ bad.

And as Maximus _really_ started running and the streets of Corona became a blur all around him, he decided that Maximus was not even mostly bad.

But as he clung on to the stallion, Eugene found his thoughts wandering down a darker path.

The Stabbingtons had somehow known about Rapunzel's magical hair. He had been with Rapunzel for the entirety of the past two days and he knew for a damn fact that neither of them had let that information slip.

Given that Rapunzel had grown up in a tower for the past 18 years of her life, that left a vanishingly short list of people who would know about the hair.

" _I – it wasn't us! It was the old lady!"_

The only other person who knew about Rapunzel and her hair would be her mother. And despite never having met her, Eugene did not have a positive opinion of the woman who had trapped Rapunzel in a gilded cage for her entire life. The confession, blurted out by the elder Stabbington, only served to confirm that Rapunzel was not safe in her mother's vicinity.

Rapunzel was in danger, even if she didn't realize it yet.

Soon they were plunging deep into the forests surrounding Corona, and his eyes narrowed as he noted the familiar greenery around him.

"All right, Max, I know the way from here," of course the first time they had ended up in the clearing that was the entrance to the hidden valley, they had taken a more _vertical_ short-cut, but he was also familiar enough with the forests to get back to the same place using a method that wouldn't be quite so hazardous to either of them.

 _Please let me be on time. Let her still be safe._

And then they had arrived, running through the curtain of ivy and vines, heading deep into the hidden valley. Eugene leaped from Maximus' back even before the horse could start to decelerate – it certainly wasn't the first time he'd done that and he knew how to fall to absorb the worst of the shock by now.

The windows were open, that much he could see, but from the bottom of the tower he had no way of telling if there was anyone within.

 _Please be in, please be in, please be in._

Desperation burned within him, and he cupped his hands around his mouth.

"RAPUNZEL!"

(X)

For a long, endless moment, Rapunzel sat as if she had been turned to stone, feeling as if someone had reached straight into her chest and squeezed down on her heart in an attempt to crush it.

Rapunzel felt like she could barely breathe. The spoon she had been holding fell from her nerveless fingers and clattered noisily to the floor.

And then,

"RAPUNZEL!"

The shout again. It was Eugene's voice. There was no mistake.

And suddenly Rapunzel found herself moving, not realizing that she had made a conscious decision to move, just feeling her arms pushing her up and her legs twisting her body in the direction of the window. The chair was pushed back and fell down with a dull thud, but Rapunzel barely noticed as she dashed towards the window.

Eugene was here! He had _come back!_

And if he had come back, then surely he hadn't abandoned her back at the beach last night! There had to be a rational explanation for why she'd seen him sail away on the boat.

There had to be. There just HAD to be.

And then she was at the window, staring out at the familiar scene in front of her. Her eyes first caught sight of a splash of white – Max! He had come too! - and then as she moved her gaze further down, closer to the base of the tower, she saw him.

He was just standing there, panting with exertion, but the instant he saw her, and expression of pure relief and delight came across his face.

Rapunzel felt her heart catch in her throat. That expression... such honest, open joy to see her just made the notion that he had abandoned her and run off with the crown seem even more ludicrous now.

Suddenly his face vanished, along with everything else, behind a thick blurry mist and Rapunzel realized that tears had formed in her eyes all of a sudden, and she found herself wanting to laugh aloud for no apparent reason.

Hastily wiping her tears away from her face, she quickly swung her hair around the hook above her window and let it hang all the way down where Eugene could grab on to it. She saw him jump up and grab onto the golden locks to pull himself up.

"You don't need to do that, you know," she laughed and hiccuped through her tears, and she wasn't sure he'd heard her at all. "I can pull you up to where I am – where we are!"

Suddenly she remembered that she _wasn't_ alone in the tower and after a glance to check that her hair was properly secured to the hook she swung around to look behind her.

Mother would be angry, most probably, but they could work it out! They just needed to sit down and talk it out and then she'd see what a wonderful person Eugene really was, and everything would be fine.

"Mother! Look, it's Eugene! I was wrong about him; he's come back after all! I can't wait for you to meet him!"

(X)

When the first shout had sounded through the tower, Gothel had frozen. She had only heard his voice once, and that had only been from a distance, when she and those two idiot thugs had listened to their indistinct murmurings around the camp-fire. But there was still no mistaking the owner of that voice.

Flynn Rider was supposed to be _dead_ by now! Or at least locked away deep in Corona's dungeons, with the secret of the tower to be taken to the grave with him.

But now he had survived – somehow. And now he had escaped – somehow. And now here he was, ready to fill Rapunzel's head with more foolish ideas about leaving the tower. Again!

She watched Rapunzel as she practically flew across the room towards the window. The girl was all but glowing with delight, and Gothel felt something akin to panic rising within her and threatening to break free.

The girl was smitten. She would believe whatever it was that Flynn Rider told her because she _wanted_ to believe whatever he told her. If he was allowed to enter and to share his side of the story, Rapunzel would believe it – no questions asked.

And what exactly was his side of the story anyway? How much did Flynn Rider know about Gothel and – she swallowed hard. Those two idiot thugs. Had they given anything away? If they had accidentally spilled how they knew about Rapunzel's magic hair – Ugh! She should have properly disposed of them when she had the chance!

And as she watched Rapunzel frantically work to drag the thief up to her sanctuary, a single thought crystallized in Gothel's mind, shining with absolute clarity.

Flynn Rider could not be allowed to say anything. He had already poisoned her flower's mind for long enough.

Everything else could be smoothed over with Rapunzel eventually, and it would be far easier if Flynn Rider were out of the picture permanently.

Without looking, she slid open the drawer and reached for her dagger.

(X)

When Rapunzel looked behind her and saw her mother, the first thought that flitted through her mind was that there was something odd about the way Mother was moving. Something that reminded her of the way the two brutes had been walking towards her the night before. Like a predator towards prey.

But before she could fully process that thought she realized that Eugene had almost reached the window and so she turned back to the window, offering a hand to supportEugene as he clambered for the window ledge.

"Rapunzel!" Eugene said, relief written all over his face as he started to pull himself into the room. "I thought I'd never see you aga-" And then that relief turned into naked alarm as he saw something behind her and jerked back instinctively.

And suddenly Rapunzel was aware of mother coming up at her side, but rushing forward far too quickly, and her eyes widened in alarm as she saw the flash of a dagger's blade.

Eugene's reflexes was probably the only thing that had saved his life – the stab that had been aimed at his breast instead struck at the arm that he had thrown up to ward off the blow, cutting a deep gash all the way from his wrist to his elbow. But he had been half-in, half-out of the tower, balanced on the windowsill, and the impact caused him to stumble backwards, falling off the ledge.

"Eugene!" Rapunzel gasped out as she rushed forward, her heart in her throat, but she saw his good hand had reached out and seized at the long curtain of her hair that still hung just outside the window, arresting his fall.

"Eugene!" Rapunzel cried again as she leaned out the window, her hands reaching out to grasp his and pull him to safety. But then she was aware of a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye, and she turned to see her mother, face tight with rage as she too leaned out the window, trying to stab at him again.

"Mother, what are you -" her cry of alarm and confusion remained incomplete as she saw her mother, lips drawn back in a wordless snarl, lunge forward.

Eugene could not save himself. His one good hand was already hanging on to her hair for dear life, his other one was slick with flowing blood and unable to properly grasp on to anything.

And Rapunzel found herself moving without conscious thought.

"Mother, STOP!"

Later, over the course of many sleepless nights, she would replay that moment over and over, trying to see if she could have done something, anything different. Had she moved too quickly? Too slow? Could she have grabbed onto her instead of pushing her?

Could she have done something else?

Could she have saved her mother's life?

She rammed her shoulder into mother, seeking only to push her away from Eugene and maybe to place herself between the two of them. But mother had been in the process of lunging while half-hanging outside the window, and Rapunzel's tackle had threw her off balance.

Mother screamed all the way down the tower.

Rapunzel stood there, eyes wide and taking deep gasping breaths.

"I – I..." she found herself stammering, trying to figure out what had just happened, what she had to do. Maybe mother was still alive! She had to get down there, she could heal – she HAD to heal -

"Rapunzel..."

Eugene's weak groan snapped her back to reality, and she frantically looked over to him.

"Eugene, touch my hair with your hand!" and as he moved to comply, she frantically started singing. " _Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine..._ "

She tuned the rest of her own song out, having sung it so many times that it was practically automatic for her by now. As the golden glow began to flow through her hair, she pulled Eugene in closer, dragging him into the safety of the tower and letting him collapse onto the floor. A quick glance confirmed that the knife wound had healed over, but Eugene still looked weak and dizzy from the blood loss.

As for herself, she quickly grabbed ahold of her hair. Trying to force her trembling fingers to remain steady, she took a deep shuddering breath and began to slide down the tower again.

As she zipped towards the ground below her, she kept her eyes trained on red stain on the ground that was her mother's dress. Mother was still alive. She _had_ to be. She just had to let Rapunzel sing to her and she'd be right as rain...

But as she reached the ground and began to run frantically towards her mother's cor – her mother's _still alive_ body, what she saw rooted her to the ground with shock and horror.

Mother had already begun to crumble. Whatever magic her hair had given to extend her life while she was alive, it was apparently all revoked upon death. Her skin grew shrivelled around her frame, her hair faded from glossy black to powder white. Even as Rapunzel took another trembling step towards the body, it finally vanished into so much dust.

And Rapunzel sank to her knees, hands clutched to her chest and eyes wide with shock.

Her mother was gone.

And not even the magic of her hair could bring her back.

(X)

The Snuggly Duckling was noisy.

Admittedly, it was always noisy, but today it was even more noisy than was usual.

The thugs were packing and getting ready to move out at first light of dawn. The Corona Guards weren't known for being the best and brightest, not by a long shot, but assaulting the dungeons in broad daylight tended to be the sort of thing that drew attention to the place.

So, best to move out and hit the road for a while until that whole mess died down and they could come back to set up shop again.

At a corner in the far end of the room, Rapunzel sat, eyes staring at nothing in particular. Flynn Rider sat next to her, alternating between nursing a drink and trying without much succes to coax Rapunzel into eating some of the food that had been placed before her.

The two of them had shown up about half an hour earlier, just as the sun was starting to sink into the horizon. The girl in particular had looked like fresh hell, but given the way she had been clinging to Flynn the thugs had determined that he was not the source of her current misery and therefore decided that he was allowed to live.

For now.

Eugene resisted the urge to sigh as he stared at Rapunzel. How had it ended up like this? One moment he'd just wanted to make sure she was safe and – what? Convince her to leave the tower? Tell her that the woman who'd raised her from a baby was an awful, awful person and didn't have her best interests at heart?

And now the woman herself was dead and given that it had happened in process of her trying to murder him, he found it hard to feel especially bad about that. But he knew that it was tearing Rapunzel apart inside.

And what was he supposed to say to her? "I'm sorry for your loss" sounded ridiculously trite. "You're better off, trust me. That woman was crazy" may have been true but not the sort of thing one said to a grieving daughter. "I'm here for you" was marginally better, but given the events of the past twenty-four hours, he wasn't quite one-hundred percent sure where he and Rapunzel stood right now, and he was wary of making things worse.

Still, he had to say something.

He took a deep breath.

"Rapunzel, I -"

"Did you really leave?"

(X)

Rapunzel stared at Eugene as the question hung in the air between the two of them.

She swallowed hard.

It was a stupid question. Of course it was. Why ask that when he had obviously come back for her?

But it was only then that the truth of the situation had fallen upon Rapunzel. She was alone. She had nothing. She had no one. Except him.

Except Eugene.

And she realized she needed to know.

She _needed_ to know that she could trust him absolutely. Trust him with herself, trust him with everything. Because if she couldn't, if she really was all alone in this big, wide, fascinating, _terrifying_ world, she'd start shaking and crying and never be able to stop, not even after all the tears had been wrung out of her body and she was nothing but a pale, pathetic shell of herself.

And so right now, more than anything, she needed, needed, _needed_ him to tell her 'No, I didn't', and she needed to be able to just trust him and, and, and feel safe.

(X)

Eugene swallowed hard.

"No," he said softly. "I didn't."

Something changed in Rapunzel as he said that. Like a knot that had been tied deep within her had suddenly come unwound and she wasn't curling up into herself quite so tightly any longer.

"I just wanted to get rid of that stupid crown. See, I had some – well, partners for that job. I double-crossed them earlier, just before I met you, actually. So I could keep it for myself. And then, yesterday... I realized I didn't want it any more. So I left to give it to them."

Rapunzel said nothing, but her eyes were wide and focused, silently urging him on.

"Well, turned out they didn't want the crown any more either. They wanted..." he drew in a deep breath. "They wanted the girl I was travelling with. You. Because of your magic hair. So they knocked me out, tied me to the boat with the crown, and sent me with a one-way ticket to meet the Corona Royal Guard.

"I was captured and scheduled for execution, but as you probably heard from some of the other guys here, Max rounded them up and staged a rescue for me so I could get to your tower. And the rest you know."

Rapunzel had bowed her head by now, hands unconsciously reaching up to tug at the golden locks framing her face. "They wanted my hair..." she mumbled. "But... how did they even know about it?"

 _Your crazy old witch of a mom told them about it so she would have the muscle needed to come after you._ "I don't know either," he wasn't entirely sure what Rapunzel's mother had been thinking – or indeed, why she'd tried to murder him either, but it was a moot point now, and Gothel had taken her secrets with her to the grave.

Either way, no need to make Rapunzel feel any worse than she did right now.

"Why...?" Rapunzel was whispering to herself now, her words small and meek amidst the dull roar of noise around them. "Why did mother try to kill you? Why did any of this have to happen?"

Eugene was suddenly aware of how small and vulnerable she looked at that moment, curled up and miserable in a grimy, stained dress, huddled in a corner of a dingy bar in the ass-end of the kingdom. And so he reached out to grasp her hand.

She blinked and froze, but did not pull away.

"Rapunzel... I know everything that happened today has been a really traumatic and, well, you need time to take it all in. I haven't fully absorbed everything either. But," he continued. "I want you to know, before anything else, that you don't have to do this alone. No matter what happens, for as long as you want or need me, I'm here for you."

There was a whirr and a clicking noise from the seat next to Rapunzel and Eugene cracked a small smile.

" _We're_ here for you," he amended. "Pascal too."

Rapunzel stared at him for a long moment.

And then she burst into tears.

She threw her arms around him, clinging to him tightly like a drowning man to a rock, and as the sobs shook her small, delicate body, he could hear her murmuring 'thank you' over and over into his shoulder.

As the night wore on, he continued to sit there, holding on to her.

Letting her hold on to him.

* * *

 **Chapter End**

* * *

 **Author Note:** I'll be doing this segment to hopefully point out stuff I want to clarify and expand on that I couldn't properly fit into the narrative itself. Hopefully it'll be informative and fun to read.

First off,

 **Eugene and Rapunzel's Relationship** : With the events in the tower taking a drastically different turn in my story than canon, I think the way Eugene and Rapunzel's relationship developed would differ from what happened in the equivalent timeframe of the movie.

Eugene and Rapunzel are both aware that they love each other, of course, and given the events on the boat they're aware their love is more or less reciprocated, but they didn't have the twin scenes where both decided independently that they were willing to sacrifice everything they had so the other could live and be happy.

So, yeah, in love with each other, but not quite 'You're my New Dream' status. Yet.

Regardless, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this.


	2. Grey Skies: Part 2

Chasing Dreams

* * *

Fans of my other works will know that I frequently suffer from horrible cases of schedule slip. Hoepfully it won't end up too bad here, and I'll do my best to try to maintain some sort of steady pace.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

* * *

 **Grey Skies: Part 2**

Summary: The world loomed before her, bewildering in its simple, utter vastness. And at that moment she realized that there was only one thing to do.

* * *

The next morning saw the two of them returning to the tower. The overcast skies made the entire place seem even more bleak and dreary, but with the pub thugs clearing out of the Duckling they had both agreed that the tower would be the better spot to rest and recuperate until they could figure out – well, figure out what came next.

Maximus had allowed Rapunzel to ride him on their way back. Eugene, meanwhile, had declined both because he wanted an excuse to stretch his legs anyway and because it'd probably be a good idea to carry her hair as she rode. He'd also tried to keep a discreet eye on Rapunzel during their journey back through the forest. The beds available in the Snuggly Duckling weren't exactly high class (and he was fairly certain something had crawled into his cot and died in there), but the thugs had generously went out of their way to give her the best of what they had. And despite the turmoil she had to be going through inside, she was gone almost the instant her head touched the pillow.

He supposed it only made sense once he thought about it; she'd had to spend the most of the previous night walking back to the tower and the next day hadn't done much for her getting any rest either.

Well, if nothing else, a full night's sleep had to have done her _some_ good – she no longer looked quite so haggard, but there was still a lost, uncertain look in her eyes that he didn't like to see. He could clearly remember the last time he'd seen that look – on the boat, while she had confessed her fear that the lanterns she had longed to see her entire life would not be as amazing as she'd dreamed it would be.

He'd been able to quiet her fears then, and even instil her with a new hope for what the future held – new dreams to find, new worlds to discover.

He had a feeling that doing it again would prove just a bit more difficult.

For now though, being a comforting presence at her side would have to be enough.

Soon, they were once more in the clearing where the tower stood. Rapunzel visibly stiffened at the sight of the place, but the moment passed as she let out a soft sigh.

"C'mon, blondie," offering his hand to her, Eugene helped her off Max. "You'll feel better after you've had something to eat."

(X)

By unspoken agreement, the first thing Rapunzel did upon returning to the tower was to head upstairs to get a bath while Eugene rummaged around the kitchen area, trying to find something to make a meal with.

As the accumulated grime and dirt of the past three days was washed off her body, she instinctively moved to grab hold of and begin washing her hair.

And then she paused.

For as long as she could remember, washing her hair had been a task that took hours at the minimum, to say nothing of drying and brushing it after. And most of the time, that hadn't really been an issue. After all, her main problem in the tower had been finding ways to spend her time, not the other way around.

Now though, Eugene was cooking for her and he'd definitely finish way sooner than she did. At least if she was going to do a thorough job.

She sighed and let her hair be for the moment. It didn't really get dirty easily anyway.

So many things were going to change now, she thought idly as she headed to her wardrobe and started to dig out new clothes to wear. To think that two days ago she thought she would have been satisfied with a single day out to see the floating lanterns.

Hah. The idea seemed ridiculous now. Satisfied? With that brief, tantalizing glimpse of all the wonders the world had to offer her? Her desire to go, learn, _explore_ had only increased and felt like smouldering fire just waiting to consume her.

But she was free to do that now, if she wanted. Go where she wanted, do what she wished. There was nothing to stop her.

Because mother was dead.

She felt her gut twist and she took a deep shuddering breath to calm herself as she leaned her forehead against the cool wall of the room.

 _All right, Rapunzel. Breathe. Focus. One thing at a time._ She'd been repeating that to herself since last evening, ever since Eugene's promise that he would stay by her side. There was so much – just so _much_ – to take in, that the only way she felt she'd ever be able to deal with how completely her world seemed to have upended would be to break it down and handle it, one little piece at a time.

That way, things looked more manageable.

"Come on, Pascal," she said as she slipped into another of her handmade dresses. "You should get something to eat too."

By the time they'd made their way down the stairs, Eugene had already set the plates down on the dining table.

"I hope you don't mind bread and grilled cheese. Most of the stuff I'm good at cooking are things that can be made fast and eaten on the go."

She smiled slightly at that, "That'll be fine, Eugene. Would you mind getting Pascal some fruit as well? I kept a few grapes in the top cabinet over there."

The three of them ate in relative silence. She'd done little more than pick at last night's dinner at the Snuggly Duckling, and after the first bite of bread she realized that she was indeed very hungry. The food disappeared quickly.

After a bit, she noticed that Eugene seemed to be watching her as she ate, and so she quirked her eyebrow.

"What is it?"

He seemed to gather himself and shook his head once, "No, nothing. Don't mind me."

The rest of the meal was uneventful. Finally, their plates were empty and the both of them looked at each other.

"Well..." she began hesitantly, taking a glance around the room. "Now what?"

That was the question she'd carefully put off thinking about for quite a while. What would the two of them do now?

Would they move to the city and make an honest living in quiet obscurity? She wasn't sure she even knew how to do that. She had a basic idea that money was needed to survive in places like that, but she wasn't sure she was even capable of earning any – the honest way, at least. Live in the forest? Picking fruit and living off the land seemed to hold a certain appeal, but it was equally true that she had gotten used to creature comforts like a soft bed and hot food. Her night under the stars had been great fun as a novelty, but she also got the feeling that doing it as a long term thing would be get old very fast.

No matter what, she couldn't stay in the tower. Every corner she looked at, every item she touched, and she was instantly reminded of her mother being there, and she would feel her breath catch in her throat. Even her paintings, normally so bright and cheery, now seemed to mock her with every smile and laughing face. A glance at the mirror standing in the corner of the room, and for the briefest moment she saw _her_ standing there, clad in her favourite red dress and checking her face for wrinkles.

Rapunzel blinked and inhaled sharply. The vision of mother was gone. In her place was a little girl with cascading golden hair, staring forlornly at the mirror.

"Well," Eugene's voice brought her back to the present. "What do you want to do?"

"I don't know. What _can_ we do?" she hated how her voice sounded small and weak, but the truth was that striking out on her own was a vastly different affair than a two-day roadtrip. And she had very little idea of what it would take.

A contemplative look crossed Eugene's face. "Well, right now I've enough stashed away that we could live comfortably for a couple months. More if we're frugal and don't need to spend much on transport."

"Transport?"

He waved his hand vaguely. "Well, if you want to go live somewhere else outside Corona it'll cost us money to get there," he smiled at her. "I think you'd like living there though, blondie. The place really seemed to agree with you."

She smiled unconsciously at the thought of the sunny streets and the friendly residents of the city, before reality asserted itself and she shook his head.

"I can't do that, Eugene."

"Huh. I could have sworn you loved the place."

"I do! But..." she trailed off and looked at him, her brow furrowing. "Eugene, if we lived in Corona, you'd have to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder. I'm not going to do that to you."

"Heh," His chuckle was self-conscious. "Well, that crosses quite a large number of places off the list, then." His expression then became serious. "You sure? I'm already pretty used to ducking my head when trouble comes knocking. It wouldn't be a big deal for me."

"No, it's fine. You've already -" _done so much for me, Eugene. I don't want to force you to do more._ "Lived long enough like that, anyway."

"Okay then."

Rapunzel bit her lip again, thinking hard as she sifted through her limited pool of information about the outside world.

"Hey, Eugene?" she said as a new thought blossomed in her mind. "If... well, if you hadn't met me, what would your plans have been? With the crown, I mean?"

His eyes widened slightly. "Me? I thought you knew already. Because unless my memory is lying to me, you were paying rapt attention during my part of that stupid song and dance sequence back in the bar-"

"No, no, I mean, I know you want – wanted? – to get an island. But how were you planning to go about it? You can't exactly just straight up trade a crown for an island, can you?" she paused for a moment before smiling at Eugene. "And for the record? I don't think it was stupid, and I think you're a pretty good singer."

Eugene's cheeks coloured noticeably – and somewhere in the back of her mind Rapunzel noted that somehow, blushing made him look even more handsome. She felt her own face grow slightly warmer too.

"ANYWAY!" he said just a tad too loudly after coughing into his fist. "Well, the plan – whether or not I actually succeeded in nabbing the crown – was to head north to a kingdom I'm not that well known in yet. If I'd gottne and crown and could sell it off there, I'd be set. If not, well, find something else to steal there and keep going."

"... Do you know what that kingdom's like?"

"What, Caldis? Never been there in person, but I hear they're all about the boat building. They've got these huge shipyards and can churn out galleons like none other. Almost every other country in the region buys their ships from these guys – they're that good."

"Caldis..." she vaguely recalled seeing that name in the atlas she'd read back in Corona's library. As well as the names of the other small kingdoms and states that surrounded the kingdom of Corona. She could recall facts and snippets the book had told her about the places – Caldis, as Eugene had said, famed for its shipyards. Eisen, with its incomparable metallurgists and glass-smiths. The Yulyan region whose textile works were so brilliant and vibrant their pictures seemed to almost come alive.

Suddenly she felt a desire well up within her. She wanted to see them all – see all those wonderful places she'd barely even heard of and could never have actually dreamed about. They sounded so fascinating just reading about them – what would it be like to see them in person?

"Eugene, would it be okay with you if we still went to Caldis?"

"Well, sure. Though, I must say I never pegged you for wanting to settle down in an industrial city like -"

"And..." she said quickly, wanting to vocalize her desire, because if nothing else, saying it would make it feel more _real._ "And not just Caldis. I don't... really want to settle down Eugene. Not yet."

Eugene raised an eyebrow but otherwise remained silent.

"I want to see _everything_. Well, not everything. I know that's not really possible, but... well, I'd like to see all those places I read about. I want to see the world. Is that..." she hesitated. "Is that too much to ask?"

There was a moment of silence before Eugene smirked at her. But it wasn't cocky smirk where he looked like he had something up his mind that Rapunzel didn't know about, rather it was the sort of impressed 'now I really didn't see that coming' smirk he showed when he was impressed with her.

Rapunzel wasn't sure if she should be impressed that Eugene could smirk so many different ways or somewhat disconcerted that she could _recognize_ all those different smirks after a couple of days with him.

"Sure, why not?" he cupped his chin thoughtfully. "You've been cooped up here for the past 18 years; I'd say you've earned yourself a little world-spanning road trip. After all, nothing's stopping us."

She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. He _was_ right, there was absolutely nothing to stop her from going out to see the world -

Because her mother was dead.

All of a sudden her pleasant feelings vanished and a tight knot of dread settled in her stomach. What was she _doing?_ Mother had died less than a day ago and she was making plans to go see the world? What kind of selfish, uncaring, _horrible_ daughter was she?

Eugene noticed her change in mood right away – not that that was hard to do, given that she had instinctively huddled up into a ball in her chair, drawing her knees close to her chest.

"Hey... what's wrong?"

She shook her head as she felt a burning sensation in the back of her throat.

"Mother... mother wouldn't have wanted me to leave the tower," her voice was barely above a whisper.

(X)

Eugene felt a flash of anger at the mention of Rapunzel's mother but forced himself to take a deep breath before replying.

"Rapunzel, I know she's your mother..." _and she tried to kill me, did I forget to mention that?_ Eugene forced that thought back into the depths of his mind. Bringing that up wouldn't help at all. "But asking you to stay here your whole life, just because of your hair... that's just awful. That's no way to live."

"But... it feels so _wrong,_ " Rapunzel murmured, hands unconsciously reaching up to tug at her golden hair. "Making preparations to go... _enjoy_ myself, so soon after she just died."

He had to resist the urge to sigh. Flynn Rider had never been one for deep emotional attachments, and while Eugene had struggled to the forefront more often as of late, he too hadn't had much experience in the art of grieving or loss. He'd never known his birth parents, and kids leaving the orphanage happened frequently enough (whether through the happy occasion of getting adopted or... well, less pleasant circumstances) that there wasn't really any point to getting weepy about every single separation.

But still, best to grab the bull by the horns. So to speak.

Standing, he noted that Pascal had scurried onto Rapunzel's shoulder and turned a sympathetic shade of blue. With a tiny gesture, he indicated that he'd prefer the frog move out of the way, which he did, although with a slight narrowing of his eyes.

Gently, he placed both his hands on her shoulders. This time she didn't freeze at his touch, instead leaning forward slightly as if she were relying on him to support her.

"Rapunzel," he said, as gently as he could manage. "Can you tell me something? Do you _want_ to stay in this tower?"

She shook her head vehemently. On that point, at least, she appeared resolved.

"Then you shouldn't stay in this tower. Go out. See what you want. Do what you want. Live life. Yeah, you should mourn your mother. I'm sure she loved you very much," _in her own twisted, crazy, psychotic way._ "But, and here's the thing, she's not worth you sacrificing your happiness. No one is."

Rapunzel looked as if she wanted to say something in response to that, but instead she took a deep breath. She still looked a little teary-eyed, but looking into her eyes she could see a glimmer of resolve and determination that hadn't been there before.

"You're right," she said, with a firm nod. "All right, Eugene. Let's go."

"Not just yet," he said with a small chuckle at the confused expression on her face. "We should probably check the tower for anything we can use first.

"And also..." his voice trailed off. "I thought maybe you might want to make a grave first."

Rapunzel closed her eyes and shook her head.

"No... There's nothing left to bury, anyway."

(X)

Eugene took one look back at the tower. The windows had been shuttered, the entranceway had been closed up and locked. Everything they'd thought they could either use or sell had been brought with them; the rest had been left where they were.

Now that they were leaving this place, the whole thing looked even more desolate and forlorn.

Of course, the fact that they were leaving in the darkness of the predawn had something to do with it, but they'd agreed that they might as well go as soon as possible, and travel would be easier before the sun became hot.

Instinctively, he tightened his hold on Rapunzel, who was sitting in front of him. Without the aid of some plucky girls to braid her hair, she had settled for tying up the very ends to prevent it from going all over the place, and then looped it around the two of them so that none of the hair would drag on the ground.

He'd have to find a more feasible solution to that sooner rather than later, but for now, it allowed them to ride Max together.

Corona wasn't a large kingdom, and so it wasn't long before they reached the walls that marked the end of the kingdom's territory. Briefly, Eugene recalled that fortification work had begun in earnest after the Lost Princess had been kidnapped, in some sort of desperate bid to prevent the kidnapper from leaving the kingdom.

Now eighteen years later, crossing the wall undetected was child's play.

They dismounted, and Eugene could hear Rapunzel giving her goodbyes to Max. Yeah, the horse was willing to put up with a lot for her sake (chiefly, him) but asking him to leave his actual homeland was pushing it and honestly it wouldn't be fair to the horse.

 _And I'm currently thinking in terms of what would be fair to a horse. Blondie, what have you done to me?_

Regardless, they'd all known that Maximus' help only went as far as the border.

That was fine. His money stash could be reached after a day's travel by foot, and after that they would be able to pay for passage northwards.

On that note...

"Hey Max," he said to the horse. The white stallion raised his head and let out a snort. And he swore he could tell what the beast was thinking.

 _Eugene Fitzherbert, or Flynn Rider or whatever you want to call yourself. Take care of Rapunzel or so help me I will hunt you down and return you to prison myself. Do you understand?_

Eugene rubbed the back of his head, certain that he really was going crazy. But then, what did he know from crazy? He was travelling with a manic girl with 70 feet of magic hair and her pet frog. A girl that he was head-over-heels in love with.

"I got it, don't you worry," he said as he took a small bag out from his travelling pack. "And here, I found these in the tower. Consider them a going away present."

With an easy, underhand toss, he threw the bag of apples over to the horse, who reacted with obvious joy at the unexpected bounty.

That matter settled, he turned to Rapunzel. It probably wasn't his imagination that she looked rather pale in the grey light of the false dawn.

"Well come on, blondie," he smiled at her and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "The rest of the world, would be _that_ -a-way."

(X)

She waved and said goodbye to Maximus one last time, before turning to face the lands outside Corona.

The world loomed before her, bewildering in its simple, utter vastness. And at that moment she realized that there was only one thing to do.

She reached out towards Eugene, enfolding her hand within his own. Pausing for a brief moment to revel in the comforting warmth of his rough callused hands, she then took a single step forward towards the endless horizon as the first golden rays of the sun began to peek over the distant hills.

 _Here I go._

* * *

 **Chapter End**

* * *

 **Author Note** : This more or less concludes the prologue, so we should end up with the real meat of the story soon.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I hope I continued to provide an entertaining and engaging read.


	3. Endless Horizon: Part 1

Chasing Dreams

* * *

Well, here we go. The beginning of the first major arc of this story.

Let's hope I make this a good one.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

 **Endless Horizon: Part 1**

Summary: He realized that it was surprisingly easy and surprisingly pleasant to contemplate doing this for the rest of his life.

* * *

It took Eugene a little while after starting his journey to realize that he had a Problem.

Not a big Problem. Not quite yet. But a Problem, nonetheless.

His initial estimates of his money stash being enough to cover them for a couple of months had been done with an extremely quick and dirty calculation of how much he had to spend in a week and doubling the amount to cover two people.

Which would have been entirely fine, except for a couple of things.

For one thing, he realized he actually cared about making sure Rapunzel ate right. For him, lunch had frequently been an apple snagged off a roadside fruit stand when nobody was looking. Quick, easy, no fuss, and his stomach could be silenced for a couple of hours.

But he wasn't going to do that with her. He wanted to get her _real_ food, real meals, as often as possible.

Of course that meant paying at restaurants.

And that was the second thing. Life as Flynn Rider had trained him never to pay for anything if he could steal it instead. That had a way of keeping the cost of living down.

But now he somehow got the distinct feeling that Rapunzel wouldn't much approve of him doing that any longer. And for the first time in quite a while, he cared very much indeed about what someone else thought of him.

And that, in turn, led neatly to the third thing.

If stealing was off the table (or at least dangling on the very edge of the table with a big 'Only for Absolute Emergencies, I MEAN IT' sign pasted to it) then that left with Eugene with an uncomfortable realization.

Stealing was pretty much the only thing he was actually good at.

Being Flynn Rider had been his life for... well, pretty much ever since he'd left the orphanage. And stealing his way up to buying his own island had been Flynn Rider's focus for just as long. And not to put too fine a point of it, but over the years Flynn Rider had honed his craft into being a _pretty_ darn good thief, if he did say so himself.

But once Flynn Rider went away, all that was left poor old orphan Eugene Fitzherbert, who'd never learnt a trade or any useful skill he could leverage to earn money with.

Sure there would probably still be some stuff he could do to earn some quick cash – if nothing else, he was still strong enough to do a day's work lifting sacks of stuff and moving them from one place to another. And while self-taught, he was a pretty decent cobbler, even if he did say so himself.

But all that mostly involved staying in one place for a while, because that's how having a job worked. Which didn't really fit in that well with the whole reason they were on this trip in the first place, which was travelling the world (or at least significant chunks of it).

So, the Problem. The two of them were currently running on limited funds, and no easily feasible way of replenishing them.

The carriage they were travelling in hit a bump on the road and Rapunzel shifted in her slumber, leaning closer to him. A light frown crossed her features until he snaked his arm around her waist, holding her steady.

The expression peaceful once more, she continued to doze with her head resting on his shoulder. On her lap, Pascal let out a tiny grumble too before continuing his own slumer, his tail curling around him in his sleep.

Eugene smiled at that for a moment before returning to the issue at hand. How to get the money they needed?

He wondered how Rapunzel would react to this news. Well, if they were going to be in this together he'd have to bring the issue up sooner or later... And if he knew her she'd want to help contribute to their travel funds any way she could. Even if it meant using her magic hair.

As soon as that thought crossed his mind Eugene recoiled from the idea. Rapunzel had spent the last 18 years living in fear that people would exploit her for her hair. Turning the tables and holding people's health at ransom for money would be just as awful in a totally different way. Not to mention that drawing more attention than strictly necessary to her healing abilities would also make it more likely to get a repeat of that night with the Stabbingtons –

He released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding only then noticed that he had tightened his grip around Rapunzel. Slowly, he relaxed his hold on her, thankful that he hadn't woke her up.

It had taken him longer than expected to find a caravan travelling in the general direction they'd wanted to go and that was also willing to take two strangers with them, no questions asked. Especially when one of the strangers was a girl with 70 feet of golden hair. Even then they'd still need to spend a couple of days travelling by foot to reach Caldis. So Rapunzel needed her rest.

And for that matter, so did he.

Taking a glance at the moon hanging overhead, Eugene closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep.

(X)

She was walking down the busy thoroughfare that was Caldis' market street, head turning this way and that, trying to look everywhere at once. There was just _so much_ to see! She'd thought of Corona's streets as busy and bustling, but the endless crowd of people here was on an entirely different level.

As her gaze flitted over the various stores and their wares, she halted and gasped in delight as she spotted something that caught her interest.

"Eugene! Look at that!" Rapunzel pointed excitedly at the stall sitting by the roadside. "Someone managed to build tiny ships and put them inside a bottle!"

Not waiting for his chuckle and nod of acknowledgement, she dashed over to the stand, leaning over so she could marvel at the intricate design of the model ship.

"Have an eye for craftsmanship, do you?" the owner of the stand beamed at her. "Each and every ship here is a scale model of one of the ships built right here in Caldis' shipyards. Every last detail accurate, or your money back!"

Eyes wide with delight and wonder, she leaned in closer to the models, marvelling at how they had painted the ship and even managed to include details such as windows and opened doors.

"How do they even manage to put the ship in there?" she wondered out loud. "The bottle's neck isn't wide enough."

"Well you see, blondie, they build the whole ship outside first," Eugene's voice came from behind her. "But all the masts and everything are collapsed so it can fit. Then they tie strings to them, and when they've slotted the ship inside, they pull on the strings so everything stands up looking nice and neat. And _voila!_ One impressive, if slightly overpriced, ship in a bottle."

"Ohhh, that makes sense!" she grinned back at him. "Well, more sense than what I was thinking of, anyway."

"Oh?" he smiled as he lay a hand on her shoulder. "And just what did you have in mind?"

"Well, I figured they'd get smaller animals to go in and help them build it," she felt the familiar sensation of Pascal being perched on her head and her smile widened. "I'm sure Pascal would enjoy doing something like that, you know?"

"Well unfortunately, not all of us have a way with animals like you do, blondie," Eugene glanced at the top of her head. "And I'm not sure he'd fit into a bottle anyway. Has he been eating too much lately? I feel like he's been eating too much lately."

She nudged with her elbow as she straightened back up. After a moment, she sighed as her gaze turned wistful. "I'd love to own one. But..."

"Not exactly convenient to take with you on the move, unfortunately," with one hand on her shoulder, he gently turned and guided her down the street. "And if everything goes according to plan, we'll be on the road for a while yet."

"I know!" she smiled brightly back at him. "I mean, we've barely even started and Caldis is already so different from Corona!"

It was true too. Corona was the city of the sun, and everywhere she looked the city had been splashed in colours of pink, gold and orange. And the crest was the radiant image of the golden sun. On that thought, she dipped her hand into her pocket, taking comfort in the feeling of the folded cloth of the flag Eugene had bought her.

Here though, the predominant colours were sea-green and metallic greys. The dull roar in the background of ships being built was omnipresent, and the flag of the kingdom was simple dark green cloth with a white cross emblazoned it. The wares they sold, the smells, everything had its own flavour to it, so distinct from Corona's own.

"Everything is so different," she repeated, eyes distant as she looked out at the crowds all around her. "I wonder what makes each kingdom end up the way it is."

"Well, could be any number of things. This city here? It's a business and shipbuilding hub now, but back in the day it used to be a pirate's hideout."

"Pirates?" Rapunzel glanced around the open streets, trying to reconcile the image of the ordered chaos around her with what little she knew of pirates. "Then how did the place end up like this?"

"Apparently enough people that settled here realized that they could earn more money if they put their knowledge of ships to honest work instead of heading out on raids and getting shot at by the navies. Of course they were still pirates at the time so when they decided to turn it into a kingdom they ending up deciding on their king via trial by combat. Nowadays, of course, everything is very official and very respectable and they hardly ever stab anyone to death anymore."

"I never would have guessed!" she laughed. "How do you know about this?"

"What, _moi_? Well, I guess you pick up stories all over the place in my line of work. Had a few chances to come here for a job before, so I figured I might as well get to know more about Caldis before I headed over. But, well. Life got in the way."

"Well, I'm glad for that," she reached over to grasp his hand tightly. "I mean, if it means you can walk out here today, in the open, without a care... then I'm happy you never got to come here before to steal anything."

He smiled at her, that open, trusting smile that made her heart flutter whenever she saw it. His own hold on her hand tightened as well, a warm, comforting sensation for her in a street full of strangers.

"Me too, Blondie. Me too."

(X)

Caldis had long since shed its reputation as a den of pirates, scoundrels and ne'er-do-wells. The streets were wide and clean, the king was considered a just, if not particularly charismatic, ruler, and while many of the locals were more than happy to regale tourists and outsiders with tales of Caldis' sordid past they would in same breath insist that they were all peaceful, law-abiding citizens nowadays.

Yes, Eugene decided. All things considered, it would be rather hard to find traces of piracy or more disreputable elements in much of the clean, well-ordered city of Caldis.

So trust Rapunzel to have done so within their first day there.

The dimly lit tavern had been tucked well away from the brightly lit main roads, but Rapunzel had somehow spotted it out of the corner of her eye and decided that it looked like a great place to have dinner.

Well, it was probably a more reputable place than the Snuggly Duckling. But not by much.

Attempts at a gentle dissuasion had fallen on deaf ears and so Eugene was now holed up in a corner booth and sipping from a mug as he watched Rapunzel scamper around the bar, talking to people.

On the one hand, he supposed he was happy for her that she didn't feel so intimated when stepping into places like this anymore. He could remember her visibly quailing with fright when she'd first entered the Snuggly Duckling but apparently the positive experiences there had helped her self confidence when facing new people.

And that was the other hand. The thugs back in the Duckling had apparently had hidden soft spots behind their crusty (and greasy and scarred and okay he was getting off track) exteriors but just because Rapunzel had been able to make friends with them didn't mean that she'd succeed with eveyone.

Then again, as he watched her talking and gesturing animatedly to a sailor whose biceps were bigger than Eugene's own waist, he wondered if perhaps it was him who had grown too cynical and distrustful after years on the run.

She was looking at and apparently admiring the tattoos that snaked up the man's arms, and the man was obviously more than happy to show them off to her.

He felt the pad of tiny feet on his shoulder and without looking he reached his hand over so Pascal could crawl onto it and he could deposit him onto the table.

"Not your cup of tea either, huh?"

The frog grumbled slightly as it turned a dark brown, obviously wishing it were someplace quieter or possibly one that didn't smell quite so much of vomit and sweat.

He turned back to keeping an eye on Rapunzel just as the sailor she had been talking to gave a hearty laugh and clapped her once on the back. The gesture hadn't been threatening in any way and was most likely an act of camaraderie, but the force of the blow still sent her stumbling forward a couple steps.

He winced and half-stood from his seat, prepared to rush over and give her his aid, but the sailor had already started to apologize with a sheepish look on his face, and she was all smiles too as she told him to think nothing of it.

That was the other thing too. It was fine if most of the time being open and friendly met you met other people you were open and friendly too. But the first time you ran into someone cold and hard and cruel, being open and honest just invited yourself to being hurt by them, and badly.

He sighed into his mug as he lifted it to his lips. He didn't want to scare her or make her worry needlessly. But where to draw the line between healthy caution and needless fearmongering? She'd spent her life getting told by her mother to fear the outside world, he didn't want to pile on more cares and concerns. Sometimes he was just quietly amazed she was still as outgoing and joyful as she was; she really was like a ray of sunshine at times.

Well, play it by ear, he supposed. At the end of the day, he had to admit he _liked_ her being so cheerful and outgoing. And it was partly because of her open trusting nature that he had started to open up to her too. So stick with her, help show her the wonders the world had to offer, and do her best not to let her steer herself down anything too dangerous.

At that point, the food they had ordered finally arrived, and he stood to collect them as Rapunzel ended her conversations and headed back to the table.

"So, made a new friend?"

"Yup!" she smiled up at him. "His name is Ajax, and he's the first mate on a ship! I asked him about his job and he told what it was like going out on the open air and then he showed me his tattoos! You know, he said he made it a point to get a new tattoo whenever he made port at a place he'd never been before. So it's like he's keeping a diary of all the places he's been all over the world on himself!"

As he listened to Rapunzel excitedly recount the details of her talk with the seaman, Eugene reflected that he'd probably be doing this for a while yet. Trying his best to keep up with Rapunzel as she jumped about, overflowing with curiosity and delight at each new thing she'd never seen before.

He realized that it was surprisingly easy and surprisingly pleasant to contemplate doing this for the rest of his life.

"Eugene," she said suddenly, her expression serious. "I want to go on a boat."

And then there were going to be times like this.

"A boat? Why? I mean, where do you want to go on a boat?" it wasn't that he _hated_ travel by sea or anything, it was just that if there was an option to take the land route, he'd take it, ten times out of ten.

"I don't know," she shrugged carelessly. "Anywhere, I guess? But the way he described it, it sounded so _interesting!_ The rocking of the ship, the blue waves stretching out endlessly all around you, the smell of the ocean air. I want to try it for myself."

"Blondie, travel by ship is _not_ some fun carefree adventure or something, and if your sailor friend told you that it's probably because he's used to all the worst parts of it so he just ignores it by now. You get storms out there that can toss the biggest galleons around like teacups. Water is strictly rationed, and you can forget about eating anything fresh for the duration of the trip. That scenery you described? Try seeing it and nothing else for weeks and see how excited it makes you. Rapunzel, people don't take boat rides because they _like_ it."

Her brow furrowed in thoughtfulness and she tapped the table once, twice.

So, had he been able to dissuade her from-

"Eugene, I hope you can trust me when I say that I know _all_ about seeing repetitive scenery."

Urk. Her expression was clear and untroubled, but he still felt a little guilty about inadvertently reminding her of the tower.

"And anyway, if long boat trips are that problematic, then let's take a short one! About a week or so, max! That sounds better, right?"

And now she was looking at him, that bright hopeful look in her eyes that he was so familiar with and found impossible to refuse.

Oh well, it wasn't like he could make her understand how it felt just by talking to her, so why not let her experience it in person?

And who knew, maybe she might even like it?

(X)

"Nothing doing," the man waved his hand dismissively. "The _Mutt_ and her crew got enough on our plates that we don't need to be picking up landlubbers out for a pleasure cruise."

"Look," Eugene said. "It's not like we want to get on this ride for free. We'll pay a fair price for transport and we'll be keeping out of your way the whole time."

Rapunzel knew that technically, that was most likely not going to be true, and she suspected that Eugene knew that too. Once they got onto the ship, she probably wouldn't be able to stop herself from running around and watching the men as they went about their work and asking them questions.

"I wouldn't accept twice what you're offering," came the reply. "'Specially not when that's a girl you're travelling with. Someone like her doesn't belong on the open seas and you know it."

The man they were talking to sported an impressive mane of dark red hair and an eyepatch. In other situations Rapunzel would probably have been interested in finding out more about that man but right now she was mostly annoyed at that man.

"So yes," the man continued. 'If that's all then be off with you lot and find a ship more foolhardy that'll take you on."

And that was part of the problem there. After discussing the matter with Eugene they'd settled on a ship making the relatively short journey from Caldis to the Cane Peninsula in the northeast for Rapunzel's first boat trip. And as it turned out, the only ship headed there for the next week was _Mutt_ , whose crewman had just rejected them out of hand.

Eugene folded his arms, clearly unwilling to back down but also unable to find a way to argue his way onto the ship. After a moment, he stepped back and turned away, clearly frustrated.

"Man!" he complained to Rapunzel. "It's like talking to a stone wall."

She sighed, one hand automatically reaching up to tug at her hair. "Well, I guess having someone come up out of nowhere and asking for passage isn't something that happens very often. We must look strange."

"People buy passage on boats all the time. This guy's just deciding to be annoying about it," Eugene sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "If only there were some way to convince him..."

Looking at Eugene, it was clear that he was frustrated. She felt a twinge across her chest. He'd wanted to do something nice for her and was upset he couldn't do that. He was sweet like that, and it was one of the many things she liked about him.

Well, maybe she should try to cheer him up.

"Hey," she said as she leaned closer to him. "Maybe you could try your Smoulder on him."

"What? No! That's not how it works! _"_

"What? I thought the Smoulder was your seeeeecret weapon you used when all else failed to convince people," she drew out the syllables longer than was necessary, feeling a smirk come across her face.

"Rapunzel, trust me on this when I say that I do not use the Smoulder on guys. And anyway, you broke it. Remember?"

"Surely it's recovered by now! And why _can't_ it be used on guys?"

"I mean, theoretically it _can_ be used on guys, but only specific – you know what? This would take _way_ too long to explain while we're in the middle of the docks trying to buy passage on a ship, so let's save that for a bit later."

She raised an eyebrow but at that moment a loud, somewhat familiar voice sounded in her ears.

"Oiiiii, girlie!" she whirled around and her face broke into a smile at the sight of -

"Ajax! What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean, what am I doing here?" the man let out a booming laugh and pointed. "I'm the first mate of this ship!"

Rapunzel looked back and blinked, "This ship – you mean the _Mutt_?"

"None other! What do you think? She's a beaut, isn't she? Captain Flint's pride and joy!" Ajax smiled up at the vessel before looking down at her. "And what's a pretty little thing like you doing at the docks, then?"

"Oh, er," deciding the make the most of this opportunity, she flashed him what she hoped was a winning smile. "I was actually hoping to buy passage on this ship."

"Oh?" Ajax raised an eyebrow. "Oh ho ho. That's how it is? And let me guess, ol' Jared here decided to give you a hard time about it, didn't he?"

"You were the one who told me to keep the manifest short for this trip around, Ajax," the man who was apparently Jared shot back. "And anyways, one of them's a woman. You know most of the crew won't take well to a woman on board. They'll say it's bad luck."

"Well, they can take it up with me or the Captain! We've never held with those superstitions, and we're not starting now."

"Hrmph," Jared uncrossed his arms. "Well, if the first mate pulls for you then I guess there's nothing for it. That'll be 14 silver pieces for passage for two-"

"No, no, no," Ajax broke in again as he turned to face Rapunzel. "I have a better idea! Girl, didn't you tell me last night that you played music? What was the instrument, again?"

"Oh! Er, I play the guitar. A little."

"Perfect! Well then, girl, you are officially part of the ship's crew for this voyage. How's being the ship musician sound to you? And no one in their right mind _charges_ the crew to be part of the trip!"

"Oh, for the love of -"

"None of that, Jared. Now, if you'd be so kind to go find us a guitar – the stall down by the old oak on the street should have some, you'd be making yourself useful."

Jared shook his head and began stalking off. Ajax watched him for a moment and turned to give a sympathetic smile to Rapunzel.

"Well then, sorry if he was a bother. Jared's a bit rough 'round the edges, but you couldn't ask for a better bosun."

"Oh no, it's fine! Just – doing his job. I get that!"

"No worries. Well then, why don't you and your... er..." Ajax raised an eyebrow at Eugene.

"Oh! Sorry, I haven't introduced you yet. Eugene, this is Ajax, the sailor I was talking too last night. Ajax, this is Eugene. He's my..." and suddenly she pulled short, not quite sure of what to say next.

Were they together? Well yes, of course they were but were they _together_ together? While there had been affectionate glances and Eugene's warm touches on her she still wasn't quite sure just where on the romantic spectrum the two of them lay and for that matter she wasn't sure she entirely knew what the spectrum looked like in the first place.

"We're... travelling together," she finally concluded lamely.

Ajax's eyebrow remained raised but he let out a carefree shrug. "All right girlie, whatever you say. Now, follow me and I'll see if we can't find you some place to stay..."

She felt rather than saw Eugene fall into step beside her.

"Travelling together?" he said, and she could hear the amusement in his voice.

She shrugged, not meeting his gaze directly. It was all a little confused right now, and so she focused instead on the fact that she was finally going on her first real boat ride.

She could hardly wait.

* * *

 **Chapter End**

* * *

 **Author Note:** Has anyone else noticed that Rapunzel apparently makes friends very very easily with violent, musclebound thugs? And that apparently the first guy she couldn't win over easily was apparently nicest man in Corona who ran a sweet shop.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I hope I continue to provide an interesting read.


	4. Interlude: A Little Rusty

Chasing Dreams

* * *

So, given that this is the first of the **Interlude** chapters, I feel I should take some time to explain how I plan to structure this story for the foreseeable future.

While the main story is ongoing, I plan to update in between chapters of the major arcs with short interlude chapters that do not contribute directly to the ongoing plot, but are mostly to provide characterization and worldbuilding moments for both Rapunzel and Eugene. And fluff, too, can't forget the fluff.

Such chapters will usually be shorter in length than the main arc ones, but I hope you all enjoy them all the same. The general schedule will be Interlude chapters go in between two arc ones.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

 **Summary:** For a moment, she simply stood there, touched by the simple gesture of what he had done for her.

* * *

The first time Eugene had told her to sit on the bed, Rapunzel hadn't been entirely sure what he was on about.

The caravan they were travelling with had stopped at a village along the way to Caldis and it was the first night she'd been able to spend in a room with a proper bed ever since she'd... left. Notwithstanding her curiosity about the quiet town they'd found themselves in – was that an actual cow? – she was exhausted by the long trip and she'd quickly staggered off to her room.

The sun's rays on her face were what roused her from slumber the next day. As she stirred and blinked sleep away, the thought came to her mind that maybe the people running the inn should have properly figured out curtains by now.

Pulling herself into a sitting position, she was about to hop out of bed and see to getting herself some breakfast when she heard Eugene's voice.

"No, hang on, sit down a minute."

She settled down, although first sharing a questioning look with Pascal. The chameleon looked as confused as she was, and so she almost looked over her shoulder to ask Eugene what the matter was.

A moment before she could, though, she felt his hands gently pulling on her hair.

"Eugene?"

"Just hold on a moment, blondie," Eugene sounded preoccupied, as if he were focusing on something else. "I haven't done this in a _really_ long time so it's probably for the best I don't get distracted."

Rapunzel frowned. The way he tugged at her hair felt strangely familiar... like she had felt back when...

"Hey, hang on, are you _braiding_ my hair?"

"Heh," Eugene's chuckle had a hint of the self-conscious about it. "Well, back in the orphanage some of the younger girls had trouble with keeping their hair neatly braided. So who would they call on for help but big brother Eugene?"

"And you remembered how to do it? After all these years?" almost unconsciously, she leaned in closer to him. She liked it, the feeling of his hands running through her hair.

"Well I _am_ more than a little rusty – and I've never really dealt with hair quite as long as yours before, but I've been working it out the past couple of days so I should be able to get this done."

"You mean you've been thinking about this?" she wasn't sure why she felt quite so surprised about this. The idea that someone, _anyone_ , would spend several days puzzling out the best way to do something for her was... well, not entirely alien, but something she wasn't quite used to.

Not just yet.

"Well, hey, it's your big adventure. Start of your life!" Eugene chuckled. "Wouldn't do to have your hair getting in the way all the time, would it?"

Briefly she recalled the first time she had stepped into the city.

"No, I guess not."

It took quite a bit longer than either of them fully anticipated, but Eugene _had_ said he was rusty, and there was a whole lot of hair to work with anyway.

Finally, he gave a satisfied sigh and moved back, "So, blondie. What do you think?"

She stood up and looked over her shoulder. Eugene's braid was nowhere as fancy as the one the girls had crafted for her on the day of the festival – for one thing, there weren't any flowers and he didn't have the benefit of four sets of hands working together.

But he had accomplished what he'd set out to do. Her hair was tightly woven together in thick clumps, several ribbons or bands tying them together at regular intervals. She twirled about experimentally. Yes, she could walk without the curtain of hair dragging along behind her.

For a moment, she simply stood there, touched by the simple gesture of what he had done for her.

And then she smiled at him.

"Eugene... It's wonderful. Thank you so much."

He smiled at her as well as he reached up to lightly grasp her hands, stroking it affectionately.

"Glad you like it."

* * *

 **Chapter End**


	5. Endless Horizon: Part 2

Chasing Dreams

* * *

Onward to adventure and all that!

I wanted this chapter to come out a lot faster but then Fate/Grand Order in english happened.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

* * *

 **Endless Horizon: Part 2**

Summary: She recognized the look in his eye and shivered. She had only seen that look once, on the faces of a pair of men twice her size, but it she would never forget it. Not in a hundred years.

* * *

From the moment she had set foot upon the _Mutt_ , Rapunzel found herself in a state that could be described as _complete sensory overload_.

Everything was just so... much! The sky! It was exact same sky she had always seen from her tower window, except now the blue was somehow more brilliant then ever, and it spread over the entire expanse above them like vast blue blanket until it touched the ocean at the very farthest horizon. The sheer, unrelenting vastness of it somehow made her feel both small and yet capable of of setting out to explore the whole world at the same time. Just yesterday she had spent the entire evening sitting in the crow's nest, captivated by the sunset and simply watching as the sun slowly flamed redder and redder as it sank into the farthest reaches of infinity.

And the ocean! She didn't know how simply looking at a rolling waves below her could be so captivating and enchanting, but it just _was._ She could spend literal hours just watching each wave roil in the see, trying to guess how far it could travel before it sank down in the vast blue-green carpet below her. And she could close her eyes and take in a deep breath, taking the unique tang of the salty sea air all around her.

The shrill cries of seagulls had accompanied them the first couple of days out in the open water, but now on the third day it was just the sound of water rushing against the sturdy wood of the ship, along with the yells of men working on the deck. Calls of them to bring this over, to tie that down, and to check on the ropes pierced the air nearly every minute.

Even walking on the deck was an experience in itself. The rough, grainy wood under her feet was yet another new experienced that her years in the tower had denied her, and she found walking slowly, pressing the soles of her feet into the ground and feeling the uneven flooring mark indentations into her feet a sort of straneg pleasure in and of itself. And the rolling. Never ever stood entirely still on a ship, Rapunzel now realized. She gentle swaying was something that took a while to get used to but now she had 'found her sea legs' according to Ajax she found the constant movement a nice little delight in and of itself.

Nights had been spent with her playing the guitar before the crew. They would gather at a corner of the deck and sing what they called 'sea shanties' in between quaffing their rum ration for the day. Eugene had sat in on the first night (under the condition that he was not going to be coerced to sing _or_ dance at any point) and at one point he'd asked her if she actually knew what the lyrics to the songs they were singing actually meant.

"Sure! It's about treasure, right? I mean, they keep singing about diving deep and finding these huge chests. So it's like pirate treasure or whatever at the bottom of the ocean."

Eugene had nodded and left it at that, although Rapunzel couldn't shake the feeling that he'd wanted to say more.

The point was, Rapunzel _loved_ being on a boat.

Which made it more unfortunate that, as far as she could tell, Eugene _hated_ being on a boat.

She glanced over at him as he leaned over the side of the ship. She didn't think he was seasick, or anything like that. His face looked more... grumpy. If anything, it called to mind what he had been acting like back in the Snuggly Duckling after she had gotten everyone to start sharing their dreams.

And the thing is, she could tell somehow that he was putting up a brave front for her. As if he didn't want her to worry about him or anything like that. Which, in all honesty, just made her more worried and upset.

She sighed, folded her arms, and leaned out over the side of the ship. Eugene had been worrying about something the past few days, she could tell. She may have been locked in a tower all her life but Eugene wasn't half as good at keeping a poker face as he thought he was.

After a moment's consideration she straightened up and walked over to him.

"Eugene... what's the matter?"

"What?" He looked at her. "What are you talking about? What's the matter? Why would _anything_ be the matter? Everything's fine!"

"Eugene." She furrowed her brow and folded her arms. She stared at him, trying her best to communicate that she was serious about this.

He held his own gaze for a moment longer before sighing.

"All right, all right, I'll tell you." He turned and looked around the ship, glancing at the rigging that loomed up behind him.

Rapunzel followed the direction of his gaze. She didn't see anything out of the ordinary, and so she turned back to him, eyebrow raised.

"I... look, I just don't like being somewhere where there're no escape routes, okay?"

"No place to..." Suddenly it clicked. "I guess it comes from when you were a thief?"

"Well, yeah." Eugene sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Don't stick around in restaurants unless you know there's a back door. Don't go into alleyways that are dead ends. You never know when someone with a grudge might come looking. And of course, try not to be on a ship unless you know everyone on it."

"Oh, well, I mean..." she trailed off and on hand came up to rub at her other arm. "You didn't need to try hiding it from me. If you really didn't want to go on a ship, you could have just let me know."

"Don't be silly." He was smiling at her again, that same warm, inviting smile she liked so much. "Look, this big trip is about you, blondie. We're here to do things you want to do! So don't sweat things like that, okay? I mean, it's just _my_ hangups we're talking about here; it's not important."

"It's important to _me_ ," she said. "Look, Eugene, I want to go out and see the world, but I want to do it with _you_. If you're not having fun then there's no _point_."

Eugene smiled and shifted his glance back out to the open sea. "Yeah? Well, that would be why I was trying to hide my discomfort then. Obviously I didn't do nearly a good enough job of it, wouldn't you say?"

Rapunzel smiled and leaned in closer to him. She almost reached out to rub his shoulder but then decided against it. "Well... I just want you to know that I really appreciate this. So... thanks." She paused and heaved a sigh. "But maybe next time maybe you could let me know beforehand if you don't want to do something?"

He didn't turn to look at her, but she saw him raise an eyebrow regardless as the smile morphed into more of a smirk. "Oh? Are you saying that I would actually be able to dissuade you in that case?"

"Well..." she trailed off. "Mmmmaaaaaaybe?"

He laughed now, a warm gentle chuckle that made her feel warm herself despite the chilly sea breeze. "Well then, blondie, I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

(X)

"So, girlie!" Ajax's booming voice carried down the stairs as he walked up to her, one hand clutching two bright red apples in it. With a practised flick of his wrist he sent one of the apples flying her way.

Startled out of her reverie, she fumbled with the apple for a couple of seconds before seizing ahold of it. Rubbing the fruit against her sleeve for a moment, she took a big, crunchy bite out of it.

"Mm, this is good!" The sweet taste of the fruit's juice filled her mouth, and she was briefly reminded of when she was still in the tower and would spend afternoons baking pies for her and her mother.

"You look like you're adjusting well to sea life," Ajax said as he bit into his own apple. "Why, I'm half tempted to see about signing you on a permanent member of the crew!"

Rapunzel cocked her head to the side, surprised at Ajax's statement. The man merely grinned at her, showing rows of pearly white teeth.

"I'm serious! You're real good with the guitar, girlie! Could probably make a living just playing music for people."

"Oh, wow! You really think so?" The men had clapped and cheered while she had played for them at night, but she had mostly chalked it up to the general mood of the air, and maybe the copious amount of alcohol they had drunk. Certainly mother had never thought very much of her guitar playing, often complaining about the noise she made.

"Hah! I half thought of going to the captain and asking him to sign you on straight!"

"The captain?" Rapunzel blinked, realizing for the first time that she knew nothing about the captain of the vessel they were on. As a matter of fact she hadn't even seen him since setting on board. "I don't think I've seen him yet."

"Oh, you wouldn't have." Ajax smiled through a mouthful of apple. "Cap'n Flint never leaves his room. And no one's allowed inside except me, Jared and Edward."

"He _never_ leaves the room?" she repeated. Suddenly, she was reminded of days spent in the tower and she tilted her head to one side. "So... I guess that means he doesn't really deal with the ship that much?"

Ajax's reaction to this surprised her, to say the least. He tilted his head back and guffawed, the sound rocking through the cramped room they were both in.

"Oh, you don't know the half of it, girlie! If some poor fool leaves a spot on the deck unswabbed the captain'll know of it before the hour is past! And then he'll send me or Jared out to make sure that poor blighter gets it!" He belted out another laugh before polishing off the rest of the apple. "Captain Flint runs one of the tightest ships there is, girlie, and don't you forget it!"

"Wow, he sounds..." Rapunzel paused, trying to think of how best to phrase it. On one hand, it sounded a little scary, how he could apparently keep track of everything on the ship even without bothering to look on his own. On the other hand, it also meant that he was really good at his job, right? "... Special," she finally concluded. It was a bit of a lame duck statement, but she wasn't sure how else to phrase it.

"Ain't that the truth!" Ajax smiled but then it faded quickly. "Honestly, it can be hard to do your own thing sometimes on this ship..."

"I'm sorry?"

"Oh, it's nothing you need to worry about." Ajax stood and clapped her on the back once more, an action that always left her staggering forward. She winced but quickly tried to hide it. She knew that was meant as a friendly gesture and just didn't know his own strength. "We're not even halfway done with our trip, girlie! You just sit back and enjoy the cruise!"

Rapunzel smiled and nodded as Ajax headed down the deck after a friendly wave in her direction.

(X)

"So, _nobody's_ ever seen him?" Eugene said as he sat back on a crate, staring out at the sea. "Huh, that's pretty unusual. I mean, I guess passengers like us not catching sight of the captain isn't that uncommon, but even most of the crew's never seen him? Talk about shady."

"Well, the First Mate meets him regularly, at least?" She was fiddling with a lock of her hair that currently wasn't braided. "I got the feeling that it's pretty unusual, but then I'm also not experienced enough to really be talking about this sort of thing."

"Yeah? Well, it's odd I guess. Kinda reminded me of a stunt I pulled a few years back. It involved me and a couple of guys trying to convince someone that we were collecting taxes on behalf of a baron that didn't actually exist. So we had to play it cool and tell them that ol' Baron Copperfield was a recluse and didn't want to be seen and so on, and so on."

She raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying you think the Captain might not exist?"

"Eh, probably not." Eugene cupped his chin and rubbed it thoughtfully. "I mean, there's no real benefit to doing that sort of thing on a ship. If he really didn't exist then it'd be Ajax and the others you talked about who have to do all the upkeep for the ship. And this Captain Flint, whoever he is, isn't someone famous enough that they'd try to cash in on his name."

"So... he really _is_ just that withdrawn? I wonder why." Rapunzel sighed and leaned back in her chair – actually a bunch of crates stacked up together. "I don't know if I could ever be like that, you know? I want to _meet_ people! All over the world!"

"And there's nothing wrong with that," Eugene said as he smiled at her. "You're you. Captain Flint is Captain Flint, whoever he is. Maybe he likes running a ship but doesn't like meeting people. And that's fine! It takes all sorts, you know."

"I guess." She smiled back at his encouraging words before she caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. "Hey!"

"Huh? What?"

"Land! It's land!" She was on her feet and pointing by the time Eugene had craned his neck to look over. "Is that our destination?"

"Can't be. Even with the wind in our favour it's another two days at least," Eugene said as he stood to take a look for himself. "Huh, now that's some island."

And indeed was. Rising out of the ocean like some naturally formed tower, it was a massive wall of rock and stone, with steep crags and cliffs dotting the entirety of the land in front of them.

"Wow," Rapunzel breathed out as she looked at the island. It was so different from both Corona and Caldis, and for a moment she wished the ship would stop by the island just so she could go see the place for herself.

Eugene seemed much less impressed and Rapunzel guessed he'd probably seen places like that before in his own journeys. "Lemme guess, blondie, you want to go out there and see it for yourself?"

"Well, kind of? But I know they don't allow for quick pit stops or anything like that. Do they?"

"No, probably not. They're delivering cargo here, and the client apparently expects it on time."

"Oh well." Rapunzel shrugged. She have plenty more chances to explore islands in the future, she was sure.

She heard the thump of boots behind her and she looked to see Ajax walking up to them, two men in tow.

"Hi, Ajax! There's an island over there!" She turned back and pointed towards the giant rock. "Do you know it? Does it have a name?"

She didn't get a reply immediately.

"Oh, is dinner ready already?" Eugene said next as he turned to face the sailor.

"No, there won't be any dinner tonight." And at this Rapunzel frowned and turned. There was something in Ajax's voice...

"Oh, good because I am _starvi –_ wait, what was that?"

And suddenly she found herself looking at three drawn swords, all pointing at her. For an instant her mind when blank.

"Whoa – Hey! Back off!" Eugene had already begun moving, pushing her behind him and putting himself in between Rapunzel and the sailors.

"A – Ajax?" she said, trying to keep the quaver out of her voice. "What's going on?"

The sailor looked at her now, his expression cold. There was none of his usual jollity or boisterousness in his expression. And his eyes – they glittered with a cruel desire. With greed.

She recognized the look in his eye and shivered. She had only seen that look once, on the faces of a pair of men twice her size, but it she would never forget it. Not in a hundred years.

The look of someone who saw others as tools to be used and discarded.

"What's going on is that we're in charge of this ship now, girlie," Ajax said. "Now, if you follow me and don't struggle you won't be harmed. But if you try to make trouble, well... some of the men with me aren't as careful as I am. Be a waste to harm that pretty skin of yours, wouldn't it?"

"Wait, a mutiny?" Eugene sputtered. "Seriously?"

"Such an ugly word, that is." And Ajax did smile, but this smile had a cruel tinge to it that Rapunzel found herself disliking "But not inaccurate.:

Eugene pushed her further back, away from the swords, but then Rapunzel felt the rough wood of the ship's rails pressing into her side. They were at the edge of the ship, and there was nowhere to go.

Suddenly she understood for herself why Eugene really liked always having an escape route.

"Eugene?" She said after a moment, trying to keep her voice steady. "What do we do?"

"Don't make this harder for me than it has to be, girlie." Ajax cut in before Eugene could respond. "Like I said. Don't make a fuss, and you won't be harmed. You're not our target. The Captain is."

"What?" Eugene was still speaking now, and Rapunzel had the distinct feeling that he was trying to distract them. "What's your hermit of a Captain got to do with this?"

"Oh, Flint's always been a hard one. If it was just her, she might still be willing to make a fight of it. But now... with poor lily-livered chits like you on board, she won't resist in case we do something to you."

"... That's why you let us on board?" Rapunzel said as the pieces clicked into place. "As – as bargaining chips?"

The towering sailor raised and lifted one shoulder in a gesture of ambivalence. "Now, move."

Well, when it came down to it there was nowhere to run or hide. Strong arms seized both of them by the shoulders and carried them under the deck. Once there, they were shoved into a storage room – one, Rapunzel dimly noted, did not have lights or windows.

The door was slammed shut and a rattling click of the lock told them the way out was sealed.

For a long moment there was a silence in the complete darkness of the room, save for the creaking of the wood on the ship and the muted sound of waves breaking against the vessel.

"Eugene?"

"What is it blondie? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I just..."

"... Just?"

"I've decided I don't really like travelling by boat either."

* * *

 **Chapter End**

* * *

 **Author's Note:** This chapter was surprisingly hard to write. I'll have to work harder next time.


	6. Endless Horizon: Part 3

Chasing Dreams

* * *

The plan for this story arc was that it'd take 4-5 chapters to conclude. Not sure where I'll end up with in the long run but for now I'll just let the story go where it will.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

 **Endless Horizon: Part 3**

Summary: "This _is_ my dream, Rapunzel," He said, and there was a new quality in his voice, a sort of soft, comforting tenderness in it that made her knees feel weak and her heart flutter. "Being with you, and helping you find your own. I wouldn't trade it for any crown or anything else in the world."

* * *

Rapunzel wasn't sure how long the two of them simply sat there in the silence. She felt the rocking of the boat around her, and a sour smell from something in the corner. With a sigh, she leaned her head back against the rough wood of the ship.

The blackness all around her felt oppressive, which was strange. Normally at nights she had seen the darkness as a comforting presence that lulled her to slumber but now it felt... thick. As if it was pressing in on her, hot and stifling. Of course, the totality of the darkness probably had something to do with it – she couldn't see her hand in front of her face.

"What are we going to do, Eugene?"

"Well," she heard him grunt as he tried to shift himself into a slightly more comfortable position, "right now I don't see that there's a lot we _can_ do. Even if I broke us out of this room, we're still on a ship filled with a crew that I'm gonna presume are mostly hostile to the idea of us wandering about freely. So right now, I'm pretty sure sitting tight and waiting is our best bet."

"Oh." She hadn't really thought about it that way, but she supposed it made sense. As long as they were on the ship, there wasn't really any way to escape.

Silence again for the two of them as Rapunzel felt the ship sway on the ocean waves. She took a deep breath and swallowed as she wrung her hands together.

"I'm sorry, Eugene."

"Huh?" His voice was distracted. "Sorry about what?"

She knew Eugene couldn't see her in the darkness, but she frowned anyway. "For this. I mean, if I hadn't insisted on us taking a ship ride we wouldn't have ended up like... this."

 _This is my fault. It's like Mother said. I keep making trouble for Eugene like this. I can't keep on like that._

She heard a sigh coming from her side. "Rapunzel, thousands of people take boat rides every day. And most of them don't end up being taken hostage. Yeah, we ended up on a ship crewed by crazy thugs. That's just bad luck, and there's no reason to blame yourself or apologize for that."

"But I should have seen it! I mean, Ajax is a bad person, isn't he? So why couldn't I tell?"

"Well, if bad people were all easy to spot, then no one would ever get taken in by them. If it makes you feel any better, I got fooled too." It didn't, not really, but she could tell that Eugene was trying to make her feel better, and so she leaned in against him.

Another moment of silence. And then she heard him chuckle slightly.

"Eugene?"

"Besides, if I recall correctly, you've never exactly been a great judge of character. Remember that time you decided you wanted a career thief to be your guide to go see the lanterns?"

She felt her neck and cheeks heating up, and suddenly she was at least a little glad for the darkness because it meant that Eugene would at least not be able to see her. "Come on, it wasn't like I had a lot of options! And why are you putting yourself down like that? You're a great guy, Eugene! Nothing like Ajax, or – or those brutes you were working with."

Another laugh, although this time Rapunzel could tell that there was some melancholy behind it. "Great guy? Rapunzel, I barely clear the bar for 'decent human being'. And that's only counting the part after I ran into you and got a frying pan to the head for my troubles. Before that? I was a dirty rotten no-good scoundrel."

"Eugene, don't..." she found herself hugging her knees to her chest, "don't say things like that about yourself."

"Sorry, blondie, but it's true. I lied, swindled, cheated and stole whatever I could get my hands on. Nothing was beneath me. If I could get a coin out of it, I'd do anything."

"Not anything."

"Sorry, what?"

"I said, not anything." She nodded – to herself, mostly, because of the darkness. "You weren't willing to... well, use force. Try to intimidate me into telling you where the crown was. You made a deal with a girl you didn't know and you kept up your end of it. Mostly. And I only know that that's something other people would have done after I actually met people like that." A memory of the Stabbingtons' flashed through her mind, now mixed with Ajax's cruel sneer.

Eugene didn't respond for a moment. "Yeah, well... I was a thief. Not a _scumbag._ "

She smiled at that for a moment, before something else struck her. "Hey, Eugene?"

"Yeah, what is it blondie?"

"I'm... not sure if this is the right time to ask, but..." She trailed off, feeling somewhat hesitant.

"Well it's not like we've anywhere to go." She heard Eugene rapping his knuckles against the hard wood of the floor to make his point.

"I guess, but... what you said about only becoming a 'decent human being'..."

"Yeah. No stealing, no lying, no swindling – at least, not unless I can't find any other way to put food on the metaphorical table because if it's your life or my newfound morals the latter's taking a hike any day of the week."

"No, I mean... that only happened after you met me?"

"... Yeah. Gotta live up to you thinking of me as a 'great guy', after all."

"Eu _gene_."

"I'm serious. If nothing else, I don't want you thinking badly of me, okay?" She heard Eugene sigh in the darkness next to her.

She felt a warm rush of happiness at that, but forced the thought down for the moment to focus on what Eugene was saying.

"For the longest time, I was my own man. Who cared if the people I met didn't like me? I didn't like them either and after I finished my business I'd likely never see them again." A moment of silence, and then a sigh. "And then I met you. And, well, not to put too fine a point on it, but I realized I actually do care about what you think of me. You think I'm a great guy? Well, thanks, but I'm not. Not yet, anyway. But I want to be. I want to become the person you think I am, if that makes any sense."

"That's... wow." She wasn't quite sure how she felt about that. Happy? Well, of course. Hearing Eugene say that he wanted to become a better person because of _her_ sent a warm fuzzy feeling all through her body, even in the cold damp darkness of the room they were locked in. But at the same time she felt her belly twinge in anxiety. Because of _her_? What did she have that was special enough to make Eugene want to change? Especially when... "So... you're really giving it up, then? Your dream about that island, and the castle, and all that? For me?"

A long silence, and Rapunzel began to worry if Eugene had actually heard her. And then-

"This _is_ my dream, Rapunzel," He said, and there was a new quality in his voice, a sort of soft, comforting tenderness in it that made her knees feel weak and her heart flutter. "Being with you, and helping you find your own. I wouldn't trade it for any crown or anything else in the world."

She felt her mouth hanging open. "Really? You really mean that?"

A shuffling sound, and she felt the touch of his hand on her waist. Instinctively she reached down to grab it, holding it tight as she heard Eugene say, "Yes. Yes, I do."

She laughed then, a bright merry sound that seemed incongruous in the darkness. All of a sudden, despite still being trapped and left to an uncertain fate, she felt like she could take on the world. As long as Eugene was by her side.

"Ha," she laughed as she slumped back in the seat. "Remember when you first showed up at the tower?"

"Well I was unconscious for a good chunk of it, so no, not really."

"Sorry. But when I first heard you climbing up the tower I honestly panicked. Pascal was telling me to hide, but I saw the frying pan and grabbed it without even thinking. Who knows how things would have gone if I hadn't _ **PASCAL!**_ " Rapunzel jerked upright. "Eugene! Pascal! He's still in the room!"

She remembered now. He had been tired out and had decided to take a nap in the room. Rapunzel hadn't seen the harm in letting that happen and so she'd left him to slumber while she headed up to the deck.

"Eugene, we have to get out of here, now! We have to go get him! Who knows what Ajax will do if they find him without us around!"

"Well, that does change things." She could hear that Eugene sounded more energized too, ready to spring into action. "Where's Pascal now? Is he with our bags?"

"Er, no. I think he decided to sleep on a pile of rags on one of the desks."

"Good. Because I'd be willing to bet anything they'll have ransacked our bags and grabbed anything they like the look of. If Pascal isn't there they may not have found him yet." She heard a thumping noise as Eugene moved about, until he was tapping at the wooden doorway of the room. "Okay, Rapunzel. I'm gonna need some light."

If someone had asked this of her a month ago she would have simply stared at that person in befuddlement. Now though, she nodded and began to sing.

" _Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine. Make the clock reverse..."_

As she sang, she saw her hair shining with that familiar radiance, casting orange golden light around the room – revealing the door and the keyhole resting in it.

"Perfect," Eugene said as he crouched by the keyhole. Rapunzel began grabbing at her her, trying to shift the main mass of it to give Eugene a better view even as she continued to sing. As she watched, he reached for his boot and withdrew what appeared to be a set of small needle-like objects.

"Lockpicks," Eugene explained in response to her questioning gaze. "No self-respecting career thief's gonna be caught dead without a set on hand, you know?"

Well, to be honest, she didn't know, and hadn't he just told her he wanted to give up that lifestyle? But she supposed Eugene was still a cautious one, and right now she was grateful that he had kept such a useful set of tools on hand.

She wasn't sure how long it would take for him to finish opening the door, and so she tried to slow her song down, tried to make sure that he would still be able to see what he was working on. Even so, the last glimmers of light in her hair was just starting to fade when she heard a satisfying 'click' noise.

"There we go!" Eugene 's voice held a note of triumph. "Never met a lock I couldn't spring in under five minutes. All right, blondie, here we go." He pushed open the door, and Rapunzel couldn't help the smile on her face as she saw the dim glow of the lanterns that lit the ship's interior.

The two of them crept out quickly, glancing all about for signs that they had been spotted. Luckily the interior of the ship appeared mostly empty. Rapunzel wondered if they were still in progress of executing their mutiny, then decided she really didn't want to know.

Her priority was Pascal. Everything else could wait until later.

It was only when they were almost at the doorway of the cabin that their luck ran out. A sailor she vaguely remembered being called Calico Jones was leaning against the walls of the room, a bored expression on his face. That expression changed very quickly upon noticing the two of them.

"Uh... hi!" Rapunzel said, trying to keep her voice bright as she gave him a hesitant wave. "Are we interrupting anything? Because we just kinda need to go get something from the room-"

A long gleaming blade was in his hands and he was charging at her with a furious snarl. Thinking fast, Rapunzel ducked to the side at the very last second – just as a great shudder went through the ship, pitching Jones forward to slam facefirst into the wall of the ship.

"Sorry," Rapunzel mumbled as the man crumpled to the floor and didn't move. Meanwhile, Eugene had a frown on his face as he picked himself up from the floor.

"That's not supposed to happen," he said as he glanced up around him. "Something's gone wrong somewhere."

"All right. Okay. Let's get Pascal first. We can figure out what to do after that."

Throwing open the door to the room, Rapunzel glanced around frantically. A window was letting light in, but she couldn't see her friend anywhere. Her heart went to her throat. They hadn't-!

"Pascal! Are you there?"

A tiny chirruping noise sounded, and she caught sight of something green poking out from under a cloth that had been thrown into the corner. She heaved a sigh of relief and rushed over.

"Pascal! I'm so glad you're safe! Oh, I don't know what I'd have done if they'd done something to you."

Pascal squeaked in reply before scurrying up her shoulder.

"Well, blondie, I don't know about you." Eugene was glancing over his shoulder even as he said that. "But I don't think we should linger here too long. No guarantee that was the only guard they had for this place."

"But-" Rapunzel frowned. "Where can we go? The deck?"

Eugene took a deep breath. "Maybe if we find a lifeboat we can use that to escape. Either way, there's no point staying indoors – there's no escape _here_ , that's for certain."

"Wait." Rapunzel had already turned to her cloth bag – true to Eugene's prediction it's been overturned and ransacked, and for a moment she felt a twinge at the thought of her personal keepsakes having been lost to Ajax and his thugs. But there was no time for that, and anyway, they've left behind what she really came for.

Her fingers closed around the handle of the frying pan, and she hefts it, feeling its weight. She felt safer already.

She turned to look at Eugene, who have her a knowing smile. And then the three of them were making their way through the dim corridors, heading for the deck.

As they burst out into the brightness of the deck, Rapunzel instinctively squinted against the harsh glare of the sun. As her sight adjusted to the sudden light, she suddenly noticed two things.

First was that there was a large amount of crewmembers, staring at her in surprise and shock. Still, as Rapunzel looked at them, she couldn't help the feeling that there were quite a few less than she had expected.

Second was the realization that the island she had seen just before being locked away in the storage room was now close – really, really close. So close it appeared the ship had come up as near to it as was physically possible.

She barely had the time to process any of it, however, before she saw a dark blur rushing up at them. Another moment, and she realized it was a person. The person's features were obscured by a large tricorne hat, preventing Rapunzel from recognizing who it was – after all she knew most of the crew by name by now. Not that she thought that was a particularly good thing after this...

"What are you waiting for?" the person snapped, and Rapunzel started. Something about that voice seemed... odd. "Jump!"

"What?" she heard Eugene say from besides her. "Are you crazy?"

"You can take your chances on the island, or on the ship with them." Whoever it was, the person hadn't bothered to wait for a reply before vaulting off the side of the boat. And as Rapunzel glanced around at the sailors who were now advancing on her with sharp weapons, she had to admit that it seemed like leaving the boat was the somewhat safer option.

She glanced at Eugene. "You coming?"

He took a deep breath and smiled gamely at her. "I don't have much a choice, do I?"

One more shared smile, and then they were running for the railings of the ship. As shouts to halt came from behind them, Rapunzel took a deep breath and a flying leap off the side as the world and the ocean stretched out to infinity below her.

* * *

 **Chapter End**

* * *

 **Author Note:** Sorry for the long delay in updates! I'll do my best to try to speed up next time!


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